People & Places

Best Festival St. Louis 2009 - Cinco de Mayo on Cherokee Street

Let's talk comfort zones. You have your couch, your bed, possibly your car. Geographically speaking, festival comfort zones in St. Louis center on a few usual suspects: downtown's green plazas and wide streets, Clayton and Forest Park. But when a festival is firmly rooted and held each year in a residential neighborhood, the atmosphere takes on a more authentic air. There still might be corporate advertising on tents and walls, and at least one of those festival music stages, but Cinco de Mayo, held around May 5 each year on Cherokee Street, does the festival right by showcasing the art, music, food and drink of a culture and inviting the entire community in. It's something St. Louisans can hang our hats on: As a city, we're not all downtown and the Cardinals and Hooters — this town has plenty of culture niches that are to be celebrated. Cinco de Mayo on Cherokee is one such party that gets it right.